There are many devices (or device features) that should preferably be limited to specific individuals. It is known to attempt to limit use of such devices through incorporation of various identifying mechanisms. Such mechanisms include biometric-based approaches (using, for example, fingerprints, retinal patterns, and speech recognition/voice pattern recognition) and knowledge-based or device-based approaches (using, for example, passwords and personal identification numbers, radio frequency based tags, and magnetically-encoded cards and identification tags).
For some applications, these kinds of approaches are often acceptable. In many other settings, however, issues concerning identification execution time, cost, security requirements and the like render such solutions less than optimum. In yet other settings, the obvious existence of the identification process and identification requirement is itself undesirable. Existing solutions tend to require a discrete user activity that exclusively serves the identification process and purpose. Such discrete solutions tend to add both complexity (and possibly corresponding user training requirements) and an increase to overall incremental transactional time requirements for the activity at hand.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are typically not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.